One Day
by StarKid McFly
Summary: A first year James muses over that redhead from the train with Sirius, only he can't remember her name. All he knows is that one day, he'll marry her. For Rainbow Dust's 16th birthday.


**Okay, so this is for one of my bestest friends, Rainbow Dust, because it's her birthday tomorrow, the 21****st****, and I love her to pieces. So basically, happy birthday!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own it, unfortunately. **

"One day I'm going to marry that girl."

The assertion of the way he said it caused eleven year old to Sirius Black look up and follow the gaze of his best friend and setting eyes on a blonde girl, thick hair woven into plaits. "What, McKinnon?" He tilted his head to the side, admiring her. She was quite pretty he guessed.

"No," James snapped, hitting Sirius with a pillow. "I grew up with McKinnon, that'd be weird." He narrowed his eyes and poked his tongue through his teeth before pointing to the girl next to McKinnon. "_Her_."

Sirius shifted his gaze to the other girl and snorted. "Is she a Weasley?"

James clucked his tongue loudly. "Honestly Sirius, just because someone has red hair doesn't make them a Weasley. That was such a stereotype."

"Alright, Mother," Sirius replied, raising his eyebrows, before leaning his chin on his hand. "So, if she's not a Weasley, where's she from?"

There was a long pause before James shrugged. "Don't know. She's friends with that slimy Slytherin though, you know, Snorty or whatever."

Sirius's grin was so wide he thought it might fall off of his face. "Snivellus?"

"That's the one." James smiled slightly and tilted his head. "She's well clever. She keeps answering all these questions about things I've never heard of, _and_ I think she's a muggleborn, which is fine, by the way." He stared as the red headed girl ran two hands through her long locks. "She's really gorgeous."

"If you keep staring at her you'll scare her off."

"Girls find my puppy-dog gaze irrepressibly attractive," James corrected him, not peeling his eyes away from the girl. "What's her name? Sarah? I think it's Sarah. Or maybe Wendy."

"Hey, hey, is she the smarmy one from the train?" Sirius asked, recognition lighting in his face. James looked at him pointedly. Sirius shrugged again. "I don't pay that much attention to this kind of stuff."

"Whatever," James said dismissively. "The point is, she's gorgeous and I'm going to marry her."

"Oh, and does she get a say in this?" Sirius smirked as the blonde head of McKinnon looked up and met his gaze. He winked; she nudged the red head. "Here's your chance then, Mr Smooth."

James grinned and stood up, clearing his throat.

"Hello," he said, moving to lean on the top of her chair. The girl looked up, recognised him, snorted and stood up.

"Goodbye."

Sirius could barely suppress his laughter as James returned to his seat. "Well?"

"I thought it went surprisingly well," James replied, looking completely unabashed. Sirius grinned and leant back in his seat, stretching out leisurely.

"You're definitely going to get married," he told him with a nod. James shoved him.

"Well, that was only the first try," he consoled himself, and Sirius choked on laughter.

"There will be more attempts after that tragedy?"

James smirked. "If at first you don't succeed..."

"James," Sirius said flatly, "that's for things like spells or Quidditch, not for asking out girls. Mate, you should just leave it now. Save yourself the embarrassment."

However, his words didn't seem to penetrate James's ego and were lost in the air as the bespectacled boy let his head hang from the arm of his chair, humming as he did so. "We're meant to be," he said in a sing-song voice, as Sirius rolled his eyes. "We'll be man and wife, you wait and-" He was cut off abruptly as a pillow whacked him in the face. "Oi, Black, you tosser-" But it wasn't Sirius who had hit him in the face, rather the girl named McKinnon. "What do you want, Marlene?"

"You're really creepy when you stare," Marlene told him earnestly. "You looked a bit like a fish."

"I do _not_ look like a fish," James snapped back, but Marlene cut him off.

"You do," she told him. "You look a bit like this." She dropped her jaw, slumped over and forced her eyebrows into a bizarre expression that provoked equally as odd ones on the faces of the two boys.

"I'm actually certain I don't look like that," James said, ruffling his hair. "I'm much more attractive."

"Mmhmm."

"Right, McKinnon, you can sort out a dilemma for him," Sirius said, smiling jauntily at Marlene.

"And what would that be?" she asked, stifling a yawn with the palm of her hand. "Hurry up, I'm knackered."

"Is ginger's name Wendy or Sarah?" Sirius asked. "Only James wants to marry her and it's probably best he knows the name of his one true love."

Marlene's mouth opened a little and her eyes narrowed. "As in ginger who you were gawping over?" she clarified.

"Yes, the very same," James replied, smiling widely.

"You're such a pumpkin pasty, Potter," Marlene said, giggling.

"No need to be offensive." Sirius raised his eyebrows and Marlene laughed more.

"Honestly," she hiccupped, "For all your smart talk and show you two are unbelievably thick."

James and Sirius, failing to see what was so hysterical about the situation, exchanged a glance, before Sirius snapped, "If you're not going to say anything McKinnon then you can bugger off to bed."

Marlene straightened up, rubbing her chin and smiling. "Her name's Lily, you plank." She smirked. "We can already see this relationship is going to blossom. Wendy or Sarah, honestly." Marlene laughed again, before swinging her bag over her shoulder and disappearing in the direction of the girl's dormitory.

"Well," James said, after she had vanished, "You learn something new every day. In fact, I learnt two things."

"Three," corrected Sirius, and he held up three fingers to count off of the list. "You learnt that a, she's not called Wendy, b, she's not called Sarah, and c, you're not meant to be."

"We are definitely meant to be," James replied reproachfully. "This was my first attempt. And I've only known her a week. It took me three years to distinguish Marlene from Melanie."

"I swear Melanie's six," Sirius said slowly, before James sighed loudly.

"You're missing the point, Sirius." James straightened up and cleared his throat again. "First attempts are for making mistakes. Nobody cares about a first attempts. So, I shall try again."

"And do people care about second attempts?" Sirius asked. James glowered.

"Look, as long as I'm successful nobody gives a toss." He puffed out his chest and beamed. "So I shall begin with attempt number two in the scheme of Operation Ask Out Ginger."

"Huzzah." Sirius straightened up and yawned. "Well, I wish you the very best of luck with it all. Maybe I could keep a tally." He stretched his arms behind him.

"I know it sounds stupid," James said, "But I really can picture us being married. And having attractive children. And owning cats. And fish." He smiled cheerfully. "One day, Sirius. One day."

"One day James."

"One day."

**Happy birthday! Right, it was awful, I know, and short, and totally not worthy of your birthday so I might make you some more little things to go with it :D**

**Love you!**


End file.
